Basic Ketogenic Diet Eating Guide

Basic Ketogenic Diet Eating Guide

(I highly recommend that you read Start Here first if you haven’t already)

In this guide, I am going to start with the assumption that you are just like the typical overweight person out there. You might be thinking – this won’t work for me. I’m here to tell you, to report to you, that the Ketogenic Diet will work for you. It has worked for people just like you all over the world. I’ve seen these principles work for me, I’ve seen the pictures and the progress reports of people using the Ketogenic Diet that have lost 50, 100, even 200 lbs. I will explain in extremely basic terms the way the Ketogenic Diet eating achieves this, but I am not digging into the science. There is plenty of science out there, but I am simply going to explain what you have to do to achieve success.

The main principle of the Ketogenic Diet

The underlying principle behind the Ketogenic Diet is to move your body from a “sugar” burning mode, to a “fat” burning mode. When you reach this state, it is called, “Ketosis”. Every single one of us has this capability. However, the food choices we have made turned our bodies into sugar burning, fat storing machines! But the good news is, we can put our bodies back into the “fat” burning mode, and use up the fat that is on our bodies. In order to adapt our bodies back to becoming “fat” burning, we have to stop feeding our bodies all the sugar. Once this happens, our body will react naturally, and make the switch to being in Ketosis. Once our bodies make the change, you will find that you are less hungry, have more energy, actually appear to eat less food, and will start benefiting from a smaller waistline.

A little bit more in depth on “Fat Burning”

The term “Fat Burning” really refers to utilizing “Keytones”. Keytones are the energy source the body makes from fat. Once the keytones are in your blood stream, this energy source can be delivered all over the body and used as fuel. Additionally, your body doesn’t actually burn sugar, either. The sugar gets converted to glucose, and this is the usable energy source. However, the way the body processes and uses these two energy sources have huge differences. Keytones are the secret to fat loss. With a little bit of caloric deficit, your body makes up the difference by getting the needed energy from your stored fat. Nice!

There are two different ways of structuring your food plan on a Ketogenic Diet.

The first is “Fat Loss” mode. In this mode, you are eating with an intent to lose fat. You will have a certain ratio of fat / protein / carbohydrates (called “Macros”).

In the second, you are eating for maintenance. You still have a ratio of fat / protein /carbohydrates, but in this one, your fat portion of this ratio is higher.

While you are in the fat loss mode, eating more fat than required will simply slow down your fat loss. And, if you eat too much, even of the right foods, you will not only stall your fat burning, you will put on weight.

What and how much should I eat?

If you are the typical fat and unhealthy person, your body is in stress. This stress and impact to your health vary all over in intensity. You might just be overweight with no energy, no additional symptoms. You might be pre-diabetic, high blood pressure, fatty liver, and worse. The best thing you can do for your body, and the recommendation I am making here is to stop eating immediately all foods containing sugar. Look at every label, and if sugar is an ingredient, donate it to someone you don’t like. See the resources page for all the different names of sugar. Staggering. Also, don’t eat anything with grains. This means, no bread, no bread, no bread, no bread. Yes, I said that four times. It is that serious. When you further consider the list of things you should NOT eat, this includes potato chips, and corn chips. So, the Doritos are OUT’A HERE!

Bottom line, the list of foods you should not eat is rather long. It is easier to learn what you can eat. The label needs to be examined, even if it is a pre-cooked rotisserie chicken you bought at the store. Different manufacturers will make similar products, but not all are the same. Some similar products can vary even by the same manufacturer. For instance, I eat Pork Rinds. The plain rinds are just pork skin and salt. But, if I look at the label for BBQ Pork Rinds, there is sugar. Or Dextrose. Same thing.

The magic number for carbs is about 20 grams per day. This adds up VERY QUICKLY. The total carbs in a single slice of white bread is about 13 grams. Don’t get excited about wheat bread – it’s the same thing. I’m going to make a little list here of common foods, and the carbs in them. Pretty stunning.

Looking at this list, it is very obvious how quickly the carbs can add up. This is why it is so very, very IMPORTANT that you examine each and every single thing that you are going to pass through your lips. Each little molecule can add up. It is not just a little glass of juice, and then a quick little sample of this.

Let’s take a look at foods that are recommended.

FOOD

QTY

CARBS in Grams

Chicken Thigh

1

0.48

Chicken Breast

1

0.0

Turkey, Ground

1lb

0.0

Beef, Ground

1lb

0.0

Fish, Tilapia

1 Fillet

0.0

Butter

1 Cup

0.14

Eggs

1 Cup

1.75

Beans, Snap

1 Cup

6.97

Avocado

1 Cup

12

The foods listed above are a few examples to compare foods to avoid, and foods you can eat.

If you have been eating the typical diet, full of sugar, carbohydrates, grains, your first step is to take stock. The first thing, most importantly, is to ensure that you start eating the right foods. IF, and I mean IF, you start eating the right foods, don’t worry about measuring out everything. Your body needs good food. Some of you exist on vending machine snacks and sugary carbonated drinks. Simply moving to good food will produce dramatic results. This isn’t hard, but it does take looking at food in a new light. Food for so many of us has a warm and fuzzy psychological effect. We eat when we are distressed. We eat to celebrate. We eat just to hang out. And there isn’t anything wrong with eating – but the purpose is to keep us alive so we can LIVE life. Most of us aren’t surviving on what we can find in our garden and hunt with our rifle. We go to the store, load up our carts, and engorge.

If you are new to the Ketogenic Diet, take a month. Stop eating the sugar, stop eating the carbs. Next, make healthy food choices. Remember, you need to try to keep your carbs at no more than 20g carbs per day. You might be thinking to yourself… “But what do I eat, then, to not be hungry?”. Good question. You got here from pampering, indulging, and treating your body badly. But those foods were gratifying to your mind. Now, you will need to eat foods that are good to your body, but perhaps not so gratifying to your mind. But importantly, DO NOT STARVE YOURSELF. Do not be scared to eat, get full, enjoy these healthy meals.

An example of how I would recommend that you eat starting out is to load up on Chicken Thighs (or Chicken Breasts). They are cheap, extremely low carb, and pretty tasty. And eat three meals a day starting out. Examples: (Meal plan section coming)

For breakfast: eggs, bacon, slice of avocado.

For lunch: All you want chicken thighs, slice of Avocado, small serving of green beans.

Supper: All you want grilled hamburger patties with a slice of cheddar cheese on each one wrapped in Romaine lettuce with a slice or two of Avocado.

This was just an example, but you could eat this every day, and in one month you would see amazing results.

There are three points to consider when eating, and in my opinion, this is the order of importance:

What you eat. How much you eat. When you eat.

What you eat

What you eat tops the list. Definitely. this is the most important, over everything else.

How much you eat

You can eat good quality food, and still gain weight or not lose. The better the “What”, of your food choices, you can increase the “How Much” of what you eat.

When you eat

For now, keep your eating window within 10 hours. Example, you eat breakfast at 8, eat supper at 5:30. This way you are finished by 6, leaving a window of 14 hours that you did NOT eat. Not even snacks. If you are hungry, eat more during the 10 hours.

You can do this

The Ketogenic Diet is not complicated to do. The science is detailed, but you don’t need to worry about that right now. You can always dig into the science. This approach has worked for so many people across the world and if you stick to it, you will become healthier, lose weight, have more energy and enjoy life more. Wouldn’t it be awesome to be able to go hiking, biking, even walk up a flight of stairs without it being crazy exhausting? No matter your size, no matter your age, no matter where you are, the Ketogenic Diet will benefit you.

KetoSuccess is here to encourage you, celebrate your success, teach you and learn from you. This is a two-way street. I want to know what challenges you face, the questions you have, and learn the best things I can do to help.

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I'm the guy responsible for KetoSuccess.com. I am passionate about helping people lose weight and getting healthier. I lost a lot of weight, and passing that knowledge on. I am currently in the Northeast part of the USA. I'm living the Keto life, and working on building my used book business in conjunction with working on helping Thrift Stores with increasing profits and customer engagement.